Echinacea extract effectiveness in preventing RTI with COVID-19 infections

The press release was impressive on this study. Reduction in viral load by 99% in only five days. COVID-19 infection risk reduced by 63% and reduction of tested virus—negative again by 4.8 days with COVID-19 infection. So are these results to be trusted? Yes, with a caveat that I shall explain at the end. In this randomized control trial, a proprietary extract of Echinacea purpurea (800mg t.i.d.) was used to prevent and treat respiratory tract infections (RTIs) which may or may not have been caused by COVID-19 infection.1 The treatment group took a preventative dose in a three-round cycle of two, two and one month. Each group included 60 people aged 18-75 years old. Between each cycle was a one-week break (this protocol is standard for continuous Echinacea use). During these cycles, 21 in the treatment group and 29 in the control group tested positive for any virus. Of these samples, five in treatment and 14 in control were positive for COVID-19. The researchers stated this was a 25% reduction in viral infections and 48% of COVID-19 infections. The variants were mostly Alpha, with some Beta and Delta. If an acute viral infection occurred in the treatment group, the dose was increased to 800mg five times a day for up to 10 days. In the treatment group, the time to virus clearance was reduced by eight days for all viruses and by 4.8 days for COVID-19 compared to the control group. Treatment also reduced fever days (one day vs 11 days), but not overall symptoms. Also there were no hospitalizations in the treatment group but two in the control group (N=2). There were more adverse effects noted in the control group 5 vs 3, all of which resolved. The researchers also noted that the treatment group had a higher rate of co-morbidities, yet had fewer hospitalizations. Based on these results, this appears to be a promising study demonstrating the effectiveness of a proprietary extract of Echinacea purpurea in the treatment and prevention of viral and COVID-19 infections. So what about this caveat I mentioned earlier? This study used the proprietary extract Echinaforce® from A. Vogel AG. If someone reads a news article about this and only focuses on the headline “Echinacea” can “treat COVID-19,” then drinks some Echinacea angustifolia tea, they might get the expected results. The same could be said for every other Echinacea product on a pharmacy shelf. This is often the case for most studies with vitamins and herbal extracts. Dosages, proprietary products and conditions don’t always apply across the product category. Along these lines, my favourite is people who take an extra vitamin C supplement to help treat a cold. If they carefully read the studies—or asked a knowledgable pharmacist—they would know that this only works if you take it regularly or are a marathon runner.2 REFERENCES Kolev E, Mircheva L, Edwards MR, Johnston SL, Kalinov K, Stange R, Gancitano G, Berghe WV, Kreft S. Echinacea Purpurea For the Long-Term Prevention of Viral Respiratory Tract Infections During Covid-19 Pandemic: A Randomized, Open, Controlled, Exploratory Clinical Study. Front Pharmacol. 2022 Apr 26;13:856410. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2022.856410. PMID: 35559249; PMCID: PMC9087554. Hemilä H, Chalker E. Vitamin C for preventing and treating the common cold. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2013 Jan 31;2013(1):CD000980. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD000980.pub4. PMID: 23440782; PMCID: PMC8078152.

Complementary Medicine

Echinacea extract effectiveness in preventing RTI with COVID-19 infections

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Ian Lloyd